67 Dart 270...Project Old School
Hello all,
I have been dodging a date with destiny for well over a year. There were all kinds of excuses from "it's too hot" to "but my car is leaking oil like a sieve". The excuse last week was rain....no they really did cancel the test and tune for rain. I got home from work late and gave the car a quick once over trying to remember what all needed to be done before it was ready to race.
I noticed there was no battery hold down so I grabbed my old aluminum hold down and bolted that down. I kept thinking I was forgetting something, but oh well, I grabbed a small tool bag and my helmet bag and tossed them into the back seat. As I started out I began to notice the skies darkening. There were spot rain showers in the area, but it was relatively clear when I came home 30 minutes earlier.
When I was about a mile from the Mississippi river the first drops of rain began the slow pitter patter on the windshield. The roads around me still looked dry so I wasn't worried. As I crossed the river the rain began to fall a little faster and I had to turn on the windshield wipers. The highway across the river was wet like it had been raining here for a while. OK, now I was worried. Oh well, It would still make for a nice test drive. As I closed in on Gateway Motorsports Park, the rain stopped and the roads dried out. It was a relief to see cars in the pit and staging lanes as the track came into view from the highway.
Should I have been worried when the lady in the ticket booth asked if I was with the Camaro club? "Hummm no...should I be?" They sold me a tech card regardless and I headed to tech. Nice guys in tech...."just print your name there and sign there"...."by the way, where is your radiator over flow bottle?" DOH!!! I knew I forgot something. "Just get yourself a plastic bottle and zip tie it in there." Thanks, so off I went to the concession stand to grab a water bottle and chug the contents. The tool bag contained the needed strapping material and within a minute the bottle was strapped into place and connected to the radiator.
Off to the staging lanes for my first pass.
The first pass resulted in a 13.48.
A second pass improved slightly to a 13.44.
The car flattened out on the top end as reflected in the MPH. Either too much timing or not enough fuel. I made a third pass, but got too aggressive on the starting line and blew away the tires. The only good thing about the last pass was the MPH which finally topped 100.
I was amazed I could get low 1.9x 60 foot times using a 17" street tire. It would be interesting to see what the car would do on drag radials. All in all, a big improvement from the 15.21 at 85mph we got over a year ago.
Hello all,
I have been dodging a date with destiny for well over a year. There were all kinds of excuses from "it's too hot" to "but my car is leaking oil like a sieve". The excuse last week was rain....no they really did cancel the test and tune for rain. I got home from work late and gave the car a quick once over trying to remember what all needed to be done before it was ready to race.
I noticed there was no battery hold down so I grabbed my old aluminum hold down and bolted that down. I kept thinking I was forgetting something, but oh well, I grabbed a small tool bag and my helmet bag and tossed them into the back seat. As I started out I began to notice the skies darkening. There were spot rain showers in the area, but it was relatively clear when I came home 30 minutes earlier.
When I was about a mile from the Mississippi river the first drops of rain began the slow pitter patter on the windshield. The roads around me still looked dry so I wasn't worried. As I crossed the river the rain began to fall a little faster and I had to turn on the windshield wipers. The highway across the river was wet like it had been raining here for a while. OK, now I was worried. Oh well, It would still make for a nice test drive. As I closed in on Gateway Motorsports Park, the rain stopped and the roads dried out. It was a relief to see cars in the pit and staging lanes as the track came into view from the highway.
Should I have been worried when the lady in the ticket booth asked if I was with the Camaro club? "Hummm no...should I be?" They sold me a tech card regardless and I headed to tech. Nice guys in tech...."just print your name there and sign there"...."by the way, where is your radiator over flow bottle?" DOH!!! I knew I forgot something. "Just get yourself a plastic bottle and zip tie it in there." Thanks, so off I went to the concession stand to grab a water bottle and chug the contents. The tool bag contained the needed strapping material and within a minute the bottle was strapped into place and connected to the radiator.
Off to the staging lanes for my first pass.
The first pass resulted in a 13.48.
A second pass improved slightly to a 13.44.
The car flattened out on the top end as reflected in the MPH. Either too much timing or not enough fuel. I made a third pass, but got too aggressive on the starting line and blew away the tires. The only good thing about the last pass was the MPH which finally topped 100.
I was amazed I could get low 1.9x 60 foot times using a 17" street tire. It would be interesting to see what the car would do on drag radials. All in all, a big improvement from the 15.21 at 85mph we got over a year ago.
